"Steel Cannon!"
Mousse’s voice was hoarse and full of terror. He had not seen clearly what had just happened either.
That man had clearly been at a disadvantage, seemingly bending down to inspect the courtesan’s corpse. Steel Cannon had caught an opening, and his attributes were superior—so why had Steel Cannon been instantly killed instead?
Most bizarre of all, in that instant, Mousse had vaguely glimpsed the man’s blade. It did not seem to be a Nichirin Blade forged from Scarlet Crimson Iron Sand, so why had Steel Cannon stopped moving after his head was cut off?
Yes, that was the strangest part. Steel Cannon had lost all signs of life, and through the team channel, Mousse knew that Steel Cannon was dead. Yet as a Demon, Steel Cannon’s body had not begun to disintegrate. That was absolutely not what should happen after being slain by a Nichirin Blade.
Steel Cannon’s shell remained, but his soul... seemed to have been cut down.
"Stop watching! Move already! He’s no ordinary Hashira!"
Mousse shouted. Their team had entered Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba together. There were six of them, and they had planned to ambush enemy Explorers and Hashira in Yoshiwara. They had never expected to run into such an absurd Explorer right from the start.
"Are you a newly appointed Hashira?!"
Hinatsuru had only just recovered from her shock. She had thought they were already doomed, yet the man beside her had killed one of the new Twelve Kizuki in a single exchange.
Luke did not answer Hinatsuru’s question. "Contact your companions and evacuate the civilians. Yoshiwara is about to become a battlefield."
In a sense, the enemy was right. He was indeed no ordinary Hashira, because he was not a Hashira at all.
Bang—bang—bang!
As the wooden floor was pierced apart and splinters rained down, strips of patterned fabric descended from the ceiling and stabbed at Luke. This was Upper Rank Six Daki’s Blood Demon Art.
Facing the countless blade-like sashes thrusting at him, Luke evaded with only the smallest movements. The gusts lifted the hem of his Pure Black Nightmare, and against the twilight beyond, he resembled a night owl dancing through the dark.
"Disturbing my beauty sleep first thing in the morning... Though, now that I get a good look at you, you are a rather handsome man..."
After the ceiling was blown apart, a languid voice drifted down from above.
Under the hazy lights overhead, a woman with frost-white hair looked down at Luke. She wore a delicate, silky kimono embroidered with elegant landscapes.
Her skin was creamy white, complementing her snow-white hair. Her emerald eyes were deep and luminous, bearing the characters for “Upper Rank” and “Six.”
Her slender brows rose slightly. She seemed irritated by the situation before her, and she looked down with contempt at the Demon Slayer beneath her. "...I wonder what you’ll taste like~"
Seeing this, Mousse wanted to curse at Upper Rank Six. Didn’t she know her own damn limits? Without her brother, she was nothing. Did she really think she was so much stronger than them?
Hadn’t she seen Steel Cannon get one-shot? Why wasn’t she calling her brother Gyutaro out to fight already?
Hinatsuru finally came to her senses as well. She knew this was no battlefield she could interfere in, and immediately sprinted out of Kyogoku House. She had to find her two sisters and evacuate Yoshiwara’s civilians.
As for the clients and courtesans inside Kyogoku House, it was cruel, but she knew that her strength alone could not protect them. Once Yoshiwara became a battlefield between an Upper Rank and a Hashira, everyone would be in danger. She could only find a way to save as many people as possible.
As a member of the Demon Slayer Corps, of course she wanted to save everyone. But she was not as naïve as the younger Corps members.
She had two tasks now. First, evacuate as many civilians as possible. Second, get word out and have the Demon Slayer Corps send Hashira reinforcements.
Aside from the first generation of swordsmen who used Breathing Styles, the Demon Slayer Corps had not slain a single Upper Rank in centuries. That meant an Upper Rank was not something one Hashira could handle alone.
She had never seen that man before. He must have been a powerful swordsman who had only recently become a Hashira. To make him face such a situation right away... he would surely die.
"I really don’t understand what that lord is thinking. The Lower Ranks are completely useless. See? One died right away."
Warabihime of Kyogoku House—or rather, Daki, Upper Rank Six—wore a mocking smile. She felt no pity whatsoever for Steel Cannon. If anything, she thoroughly hated these Demons who had barged into her territory.
If her brother had not said that since Lord Muzan had permitted the birth of the new Twelve Kizuki, they should not kill one another, she would have tied these Demons up in her sashes and left them beneath the sun to burn to death long ago.
Her soft tongue licked the corner of her lips. "He’s just a Hashira. I’ve already eaten seven of them."
"Use your full strength already! This guy isn’t simple!"
Mousse shouted again, implying that Daki should ask her brother Gyutaro to join the battle. Inwardly, he had cursed that brainless woman a thousand times over.
If we weren’t here, you’d have been roasted by the sun long ago. Without our items, could you even still be alive?
"Looks like things haven’t been easy for you either."
Luke smiled. He did not mind chatting with them for a while. Hinatsuru and her two sisters were evacuating the crowd, so his side would only profit from dragging things out.
The only risk was that his delay also gave the opposing team time to gather.
Luke had not informed any Demon Slayer Corps members of this operation. It was not because he was recklessly overconfident, but because he trusted in his own strength—and had no way to explain the source of his intelligence.
Besides, the battle for Yoshiwara had to be a blitzkrieg. Arrive too late, and there would be too many more variables.
As for why he had not secretly evacuated the crowd before fighting the Demons, that was simply unrealistic. Neither Yoshiwara’s clients nor its courtesans would have believed him. The Demon Slayer Corps was not a government-recognized organization and held no public credibility.
Most people would not listen to a stranger’s warning until they saw the danger for themselves.
All he could do was kill the Demons as quickly as possible once the battle began and minimize the casualties.
"Being pitied by our enemy really makes us look incompetent."
Behind Luke, across the street, a figure stood atop a roof. He wore white robes and held a longsword. "You’re surrounded, yet you’re still this calm. Steel Cannon didn’t die for nothing."
Within Luke’s perception, aside from Daki, five people had already surrounded Kyogoku House. From Hinatsuru’s perspective, he truly did seem to be in a hopeless situation.
He closed his eyes and used a new trick he had learned through his recent Spiritual Pressure training to sense the human presences inside the building.
Then he took a deep breath, lowered his stance slightly, and gripped Prison Demon’s hilt in an iaijutsu posture.
"Attack together! Kill him!"
As Mousse shouted, the other five members of the team charged Luke almost simultaneously.
The white-robed swordsman dropped from across the street and attacked Luke’s back. A sniper on a distant high point locked onto Luke’s head. Mousse held a poison-coated dagger, waiting for the right moment.
Steel Plate, the main tank lying in ambush on Kyogoku House’s left flank, carried a tower shield and smashed straight through the wall with brute force, charging Luke like a chariot.
The wall on the right was shattered as well, blasted apart by a crimson-glowing Blood Demon Art. Its caster was Moore, the team’s original spellcaster Explorer.
At the same time, Daki controlled countless sashes as they descended from above, piercing toward Luke.
For an instant, time seemed to stop. Attacks from every direction surrounded Luke like an ornate circular disk.
Then massive amounts of superheated steam poured from Luke’s mouth with a whistle-like roar. At the same time, blinding golden lightning flared around his body.
In the next instant, Luke vanished like a bolt of lightning. The famous blade left its sheath—Prison Demon broke free from its cage!
The black blade carved a golden arc through the air, like lightning cast down from heaven. It sliced through the building, cutting the entire side of Kyogoku House in two!
When Luke’s figure solidified, he was already high above Kyogoku House. Beneath the artificial night sky, the full moon outlined his silhouette while Demon blood scattered through the air.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register